Why All Car Guys Should Be Watch Guys, Too

Are You A Car Guy Or A Watch Guy? It's Time To Be Both

Those in the know take it for granted that most car guys are also watch guys. But those who are neither, or merely aspiring to be one or the other, might wonder why the connection exists. Do you have to be both a car and a watch guy? There are some obvious parallels but of course it depends on your level of commitment to mechanics, at one level, and the design of machines and instruments designed to get you from A to B, and make sure you arrive on time.

A cool new book from Rizzoli, Drive Time: Watches Inspired by Automobiles, Motorcycles and Racing by Aaron Sigmond, explores the connection between cars and watches in a lavishly photographed, near-pornographic fashion. Sigmond looks at more than a hundred years’ worth of automotive-inspired timepieces, from icons of timekeeping to some more obscure finds. And along the way he ID’s the watch-and-car guys who inspire us all: Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, Clint Eastwood and Daniel Craig, to name a few.

Aficionados of sports and luxury cars are more apt to be into high-end watches. The first timepieces designed for motoring enthusiasts were made by Alfred Dunhill of London, Sigmond notes, which remains one of the great men’s luxury lifestyle brands to this day. There are a number of notable watch and car brand partnerships, but Porsche is responsible for perhaps the strongest connection between the two. For the past 40 years Porsche Design has been creating timepieces for drivers of their namesake’s incomparable sports cars, but their appeal is such that many of the watches have been sold to those who merely appreciate their functional style.

“There are certainly similarities that can be drawn between the complexity of a car engine and the movement of a watch,” Christian Kurtzke, CEO of the Porsche Design Group, tells AskMen. “It is all about precision, high performance and most of all passion. Both watches and cars perfectly show how the smallest components make a difference and are able to dramatically influence the overall performance, within a watch movement as well as the car engine. A timepiece perhaps best captures what it is like to be on the racetrack, fighting for every hundredth of a second."

Perhaps the most passionate car-and-watch guys are the vintage enthusiasts, with a classic Porsche in the garage and a Rolex “Paul Newman” Daytona on their wrist. “‘Real’ car guys and ‘real’ watch guys share more than just an appreciation for beautiful things — we have a real emotional connection to mechanical objects that transcends just the aesthetic,” James Lamdin, founder of online vintage watch boutique Analog / Shift, tells AskMen. Analog / Shift has become the go-to source for many of the most iconic automotive inspired watches by the likes of Tudor, Heuer, Universal Genève and others, and Lamdin’s extensive watch collection is complemented by his dark green 1967 Porsche 912.

Why All Car Guys Should be Watch Guys Too

Jared Paul Stern

“Whether we’re swooning over the inner complexities of a perpetual calendar or a race-bred V12, there is something about our connection to these machines — their expert craftsmanship, their purpose and their history — which brings to the front feelings of admiration generally reserved for our fellow man,” Lamdin notes. “While not all car guys are watch guys and vice-versa, those that really care about either owe it to themselves to explore the counterpart. And those who are already afflicted certainly catch my drift.” Here’s a primer on the convergence of the car and watch worlds: